Heartbreakers

If anyone has a great excuse for taking so long to put out a solo album, it's Benmont Tench, longtime keyboardist and occasional songwriter with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Close to 40 years ago he came to Southern California with other members of the aspiring Florida rock band Mudcrutch, which failed to gain any traction and shortly disbanded. Tench and bandmate Stan Lynch subsequently went into a West Los Angeles recording studio with the intention of starting a new band. “We were going to call it the Drunks,” Tench said by phone from New York earlier this week.

Maybe a man who has steered his teams to six regular-season division titles but never gotten one past a second-round playoff series is supposed to keep quiet about his longing to hold the Stanley Cup. That'll never be Bruce Boudreau. The Ducks coach, who will lead his Western Conference top-seeded team into the postseason Wednesday night against the wild-card Dallas Stars, unabashedly has obsessed about the best-known trophy in sports. “Think about it every single day of my life,” Boudreau told The Times on Monday.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell is teaming with L.A. singer-songwriter Jonathan Wilson to spearhead the first Merry Minstrel Musical Circus holiday benefit show on Dec. 20 at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. They will be joined by Jackson Browne, Bob Weir, another member of the Heartbreakers (keyboardist Benmont Tench) and other guests still to be confirmed at the event, for which proceeds will benefit Little Kids Rock and the Tazzy Animal Rescue Fund. Wilson recently shared the stage with Browne at another benefit show for radio station KCSN-FM (88.5)

After Coachella, the deluge. Organizers of San Francisco's Outside Lands announced the music festival's 2014 lineup early Tuesday, mere days before Coachella will informally open the crowded summer festival season on Friday in Indio. Top acts set to appear at the seventh annual Outside Lands, which this year goes down Aug. 8-10 at Golden Gate Park, include Kanye West, the Killers and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, described in a news release as the first act to headline the festival twice.

Heartbreakers come in both sexes ("To Avoid the Broken Heart, Simply Avoid the Heartbreaker," by Samantha Bonar, March 4). What would you call a woman who becomes, over the period of two months, increasingly intimate while the hapless "boyfriend" respects her wishes to "go slowly" and not press these intimate encounters to the point of going upstairs to her bedroom? And, once the happy couple finally do decide to head upstairs, what would you call a woman who takes her "boyfriend" to the brink of half-clothed excitement and says, "I'm sorry; I'm not ready yet," leaving the "boyfriend" to put on a happy face and reassure her that "he could wait as long as she needs to," only to, five days later, be dismissed, told, "I just don't feel the same here.

This post has been updated. See below for details. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' concert Saturday night at the Fonda was cut short when fire marshals declared the venue overcrowded and shut it down. The concert was the fourth of six Petty gigs at the theater, which has a capacity of 1,300, and the move infuriated fans, who refused to leave amid howls and boos. The concern became apparent when a little after 10:30 p.m., the singer informed the crowd of a problem: City officials had told management that "about 100" people either had to move to the balcony or leave the concert, or the gig might be cut short.

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers "The Live Anthology" Reprise It's invigorating to see musical veterans make the most of new opportunities. Earlier this year Neil Young issued the "Archives, Vol. I," a massive box set that utilized Blu-ray technology to give fans comprehensive access to 10 discs' worth of Young's early material. Tom Petty, another classic rocker, has assembled an impressive collection of his live work with his band the Heartbreakers that's similar in spirit to Young's remarkable anthology if not quite as expansive.

What flies between an athlete or owner and his/her significant other/others, theoretically, is none of anybody's business. Derek Jeter break-ups are best limited to double-play situations near second base. "Dennis Rodman on the rebound" is an announcer's call, not life after Carmen Electra. After all, when it comes to sports, what's love got to do with it? Well, only everything if your ace pitcher can't throw a strike because he lost three houses in a divorce settlement.

If Petty is one of the most predictable artists around, he's also among the most reliable. On his new album (due in stores Tuesday), the 46-year-old singer-songwriter and his longtime band serve up taut, guitar-driven songs that are as instantly familiar, utterly unsurprising and easily satisfying as a good steak dinner. That's not to say that this music could or should be dismissed as a guilty pleasure.

In middle age, "damn the torpedoes" typically turns to "darn the torpedoes." Certain compromises become necessary--especially if the midlifer is a touring superstar baby boom rocker trying to balance the hot fires of fresh creativity with the nostalgic glow that a good part of his audience expects from a concert. Playing Friday in the first show of a two-night stand at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers made some compromises that were livable, if not entirely thrilling.

A posthumous musical collaboration between Roy Orbison and three of his sons will be included on a 25 th anniversary reissue of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer-songwriter's final studio album, “Mystery Girl.” The deluxe reissue is due May 20 and in addition to the album's original 10 tracks will include previously unreleased studio tracks and working demo recordings. It also will come with a “making-of” documentary “Mystery Girl: Unraveled” on DVD exploring the creation of that album and the new cross-generational track “The Way of Love” featuring Roy's original vocals accompanied by harmonies and instrumental backing provided by Roy Jr., Alex and Wesley Orbison.

There are two distinct images that open "Omar. " One is a face; one is a wall. Both are as resilient as resistant - defining elements and powerful metaphors for all that connects and divides us in Palestinian filmmaker Hany Abu-Assad's unnerving new drama. The film first drew attention during last May's Cannes Film Festival where it was the Un Certain Regard jury winner. Now it is in a tight race for the foreign-language Oscar. BEST MOVIES OF 2013: Turan | Sharkey | Olsen The face is Omar's, portrayed by newcomer Adam Bakri, an excellent find for the filmmaker who relies on him to carry the emotional weight of this difficult movie.

If anyone has a great excuse for taking so long to put out a solo album, it's Benmont Tench, longtime keyboardist and occasional songwriter with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Close to 40 years ago he came to Southern California with other members of the aspiring Florida rock band Mudcrutch, which failed to gain any traction and shortly disbanded. Tench and bandmate Stan Lynch subsequently went into a West Los Angeles recording studio with the intention of starting a new band. “We were going to call it the Drunks,” Tench said by phone from New York earlier this week.

Valentine's Day is one of the busiest times of the year for a restaurant. If all goes well, it can be an unforgettable meal a couple will remember for the rest of their lives. But with all that pressure to be perfect, things can go horribly wrong. There are countless rings to hide, requests for "the most romantic table" and fires to put out when couples decide to break up in the middle of the dining room. Oh those fires. Josie LeBalch, chef at Josie Restaurant and Next Door by Josie has seen her fair share of Valentine's Day proposals.

MANILA - Each story is more heartbreaking than the last; tales of the courage and good fortune it took to survive amid utter destruction, balanced in many cases by the last glimpse or word of a loved one who didn't. President Benigno Aquino III declared a "state of national calamity" Monday in an effort to speed up aid to islands of the central Philippines, ravaged by a monster typhoon. The death toll climbed slowly to 1,774, but it's expected to rise to 10,000 or more as bodies are collected in the cities and relief teams are able to reach cut-off rural areas.

News of Lou Reed's death hit the music world as hard and fast as a kick pedal on a bass drum Sunday morning, and resonated just as loudly. As word spread, many on Facebook changed their profile pictures to that of the legendary Velvet Underground frontman's face, and Twitter erupted with appreciations from all corners of the globe. "The world has lost a fine songwriter and poet... I've lost my 'school-yard buddy'," tweeted John Cale, who co-founded what would become the Velvet Underground with Reed in 1964, when both men were in their early 20s. PHOTOS: Lou Reed | 1942-2013 Those who knew and loved the musician, sometimes from up close and sometimes just from afar, also weighed in. Aerosmith's Steven Tyler Tweeted, "RIP TO A GREAT FRIEND A FELLOW MUSICIAN.

Critics couldn't decide whether it was a documentary or performance art, but most moviegoers seemed certain they didn't want to see it. Despite extensive press coverage of the movie allegedly chronicling actor Joaquin Phoenix's attempts to become a rapper, "I'm Still Here" opened to an unimpressive $98,000 at 20 theaters in 18 cities. That's an average of $4,900 per location, a soft number given that it was playing primarily at high-end theaters in big cities, such as the Landmark in West Los Angeles.

Tom Petty casually rolled back the sliding glass door at his rustic beach house in Malibu and stepped out onto the deck for a clear look at the waves crashing on the sand a dozen yards away. Surveying the picture-perfect blue sky and sparkling water to match, the 59-year-old rocker took in the view surrounding him and couldn't help noticing two young women sunbathing topless in front of the house next to his. The record business may be in disarray, but on days like this, it's still good to be a rock star — a job Petty has fulfilled admirably for more than 30 years now. A couple of decades earlier things might have transpired differently, but on this day, Petty simply cracked a wry smile at the scene next door and stepped back inside.

"I know it hasn't been easy for us to talk with everyone being around," Justin Bieber says in his new song, "But this is personal, this is for me and you / And I want you to know that I still love you. " Is the teen-pop superstar using a totally public forum to privately address Selena Gomez, his on-again/off-again girlfriend? Only Bieber knows. What's clear to the rest of us, though, is that after a rocky summer in which he drew more attention with his offstage antics than with his music -- we'll never forget you, abandoned capuchin monkey -- Bieber is back to the business of making records.

September 12, 2013 | By Kate Mather, This post has been corrected. See note below for details

Long Beach rapper-turned- reggae artist Snoop Lion (formerly known as Snoop Dogg) is the latest high-profile artist to contribute money toward the funeral of a 6-year-old girl shot in Moreno Valley last weekend, his representatives told The Times. Snoop has donated an undisclosed amount of money to Tiana Ricks' family, his representatives confirmed. In a statement, Snoop called the girl's death "heartbreaking. " "Little 6-year-old girls are not supposed to die from a gunshot.